unplanned house projects

Mortar Combat!

Earlier this summer I complained about a lighter fluid incident with the tiny humans that happened outside…and let’s just say…you know what is worse to clean up AND off said children?! TILE (thin set) MORTAR.

God forbid Kid A (Harper) was chilling in a blanket on the couch, watching a movie as her Tylenol kicked in to reduce the crummy fever; me sitting with my laptop out working on emails, and Craig finishing up the tile in the bathtub and then pausing to eat some actual dinner.

In the span of 20 minutes, Kid B and C managed to explode, I mean explode, a full bag of mortar powder, to give the entire garage, and all tools, strollers, food, bikes, and so on in it a lovely layer of “snow.” It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if it were a bag of flour or sugar and covered in white; but the key point with thin-set is, adding water makes it do just that, SET. Craig’s reaction in this picture says more than any words I could say. Sigh.

Reagan managed to come back into the living room without us noticing the new layer of white on her right away; Emerie? Not so much.

Have you ever tried to get mortar out of hair, ears and eyes? Well I haven’t either….and it’s not fun. Hell, I didn’t even approach the mess in the garage and my eyes are on fire from it in the air! The garage explosion quickly spread to the downstairs bathroom and then to the one working shower we have, creating another lovely layer of white to scrub up before even trying to clean off those pesky monsters.

After multiple hair scrubs, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and a LOT of scolding, Kid B and C are confined to their beds with only one stuffed animal and didn’t put up much of a fight about it. But holy moley, I know we will chuckle on this in the future, but for now? How does one clean mortar off saws and tools without ruining them?

Only bonus I see is that only two kids needed scrubbing, not three; and the fact they didn’t bring water to the party before we realized their activity and caused cemented mortar all over downstairs. I used to dread the toddlers getting into flour or sugar and man, that would have been a nice result instead of this!

Harper sure enjoyed her popsicle while the other two were scrubbed and sent to bed. I’m not sure about any other positives to this…and with that. Good night? Want to come over and scrub some walls with us?

#suchaglamorouslife ❤

Birthday Plans

I planned to write a super cute birthday blog today during nap time…but the reality of triplet and homeowner life had other plans.

In fact, this is our only family photo of the day, and man do we all look tired!

After staying up late last night, the girls slept in a bit this morning and then excitedly got up to open presents. Reagan stood up in her crib and demanded to go do presents first thing! Knowing that only a few would actually be opened before they wanted to play with them, we opted to give everyone their small, individual gift, their dolly sleeping bags and a couple other little things. The girls all traded their individual gifts with each other, with Emerie wanting Reagan’s driving garbage truck, Harper wanting Emerie’s doll, and Reagan wanting Harper’s Gus Gus plush. So much for guessing that on my part.

We had a couple friends over to play and eat some lunch like we do most Saturdays. The crack in our plan began after a refusal to nap (Emerie wanted to but her sisters were preventing it) and finally giving up on that reality about three o’clock. By that time the water was pooling more under the carpet in the family room and enough to be more than a suspected dog pee puddle.

The girls went upstairs with Grandma entertainment while we tried to pinpoint the leak by pulling up the soaking wet carpet and pad, unscrewing one of the pantry cabinets and pulling it out, and eventually cutting the drywall out in the garage. This proved water leaking but no luck figuring out the source. One of our great neighbors popped over and helped figure out it was dripping down the wall and coming from above; about this time the ceiling started to drip and sag by the washer in the family room. Long story short, the girls were very curious when parts of the ceiling were gone and more than dripping a decent amount of water onto the floor while we scrambled to put totes out to catch the run off and continued to try to find the leak.

Watching the downstairs destruction

Long story short, our master bathroom vanity had a pin size leak putting pressure on a fitting (I don’t speak plumbing….) and spewing into the wall, down the floor joists, across the ceiling of the family room, and down the wall along the garage until we noticed it it pooling on the floor. The leak had to be relatively recent because everything isn’t moldy, but long enough to travel that distance before we noticed it.

Some great friends loaded the girls up for a dinner date at their house so we could get the plumber out and cleanup the major catastrophe we call our house. We managed to prioritize what to put back… such as rehanging the TV and hooking the internet back up so Disney movies can be played…oh and covering up carpet tack strips, vacuuming and busting out the fans.

I feel terrible that we missed not only eating dinner with our littles on their birthday, but also not getting to enjoy the whole day together and feeling majorly stressed out. No nap days are not my favorite (shocking) and neither are major, unplanned housing renovations! Unopened presents are still sitting in the living room and I need a nap!

All in all, the night ended with cake at 8 pm. The girls joined in to sing Happy Birthday and ate mostly frosting and berries while licking more frosting off their decorative princess toppings. We snuggled and watched a few minutes of Cinderella before they wanted to go to bed.

  • Reagan
  • Emerie
  • Harper

What a busy day. Hopefully tomorrow is a little more relaxing (if we can ignore the wet floors and the open (unplanned vaulted!?) ceiling downstairs.

If we missed phone calls with you today…let’s try tomorrow, when it’s not raining on the inside of our house.

❤